It continues. Lenin has deposed the Commander-in-Chief Dukhonin. Appointed an ensign, Krylenko (com. Abram). It is not known if Dukhonin agreed to be deposed. A voluntary “truce” has been announced. Germany, however, does not give a damn. Next: they’ve appropriated all gold currency in Moscow.

Already through the Iberian Gate a human river was flowing, and the vast Red Square was spotted with people, thousands of them. I remarked that as the throng passed the Iberian Chapel, where always before the passerby had crossed himself, they did not seem to notice it….
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The Holy Orthodox Church had withdrawn the light of its countenance from Moscow, the nest of irreverent vipers who had bombarded the Kremlin. Dark and silent and cold were the churches; the priests had disappeared. There were no popes to officiate at the Red Burial, there had been no sacrament for the dead, nor were any prayers to be said over the grave of the blasphemers.

The inhabitants of a certain village in the Tul’skaia gubernia splendidly buried, and at public expense, the daughter of its former landowner who was killed in the war. They even erected a chapel above the grave et cetera. Recently they set about pillaging the property, exhumed the grave, opened the coffin and took the boots off the corpse.

My state of mind. My attitudes to the unfolding events. A strange serenity. I somehow regarded it all as inevitable, as something that must boil over and run its course, and there somehow wasn’t anyone whose fate was a source of concern for me. Nina Meshcherskaya did cross my mind on several occasions, but she was now married.
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The unrest, thank God, didn’t reach us; the Caucasus seemed immune from them. What a great idea it had been to settle in Kislovodsk! And so I remained in a state of spiritual equilibrium amidst the sun, the air, my Fourth Sonata (which I was finishing off), the Kant (which I also finished in November), Asya, walks and games of chess with old Prince Urusov.

The full text of our talks with Dukhonin has been printed, so I can confine myself to a few remarks. It was clear to us that we were dealing with an opponent of the people's will and an enemy of the revolution.
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Dukhonin resorted to all manner of shifts and dodges to delay matters. Doubt was expressed as to the authenticity of our message, and the query was not addressed to Krylenko but to General Manikovsky. Thus, the generals have stolen at least one full day in this important and vital matter of peace. General Dukhonin came to the apparatus only when we said we would refer the matter to the soldiers. We told Dukhonin of our demand that he should start armistice negotiations immediately, and nothing more. Dukhonin was not empowered to conclude an armistice. Not only was the conclusion of an armistice outside Dukhonin's competence, but his every step in the matter of the armistice negotiations was to have been under the control of the People's Commissars. The bourgeois press has accused us of offering a separate armistice and of ignoring the interests of the Rumanian Army. That is a lie. We propose that the peace talks should be started immediately, and an armistice concluded with all countries, without exception.